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Sean O’Connell | Episode 982
Sean O’Connell is a studio potter who is currently a Artist-In-Residence at the Penland School of Crafts. He has had an active studio practice for the last 20 years as well as professional roles in Arts Administration and Education. Notable institutions include the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary, Alberta. He was also a long-term resident at the Archie Bray Foundation from 2011-2013 and the Salad Day’s Artist-in-Residence at Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in 2009. He earned his MFA from the School for American Crafts/RIT and his BFA at Kansas City Art Institute. Sean exhibits his work nationally, is a regular contributor to ceramic art publications, and conducts workshops throughout the US and Canada.
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How important has it been to be open to alternatives?
It is critical if you want to consistently be a maker. You can’t not be flexible at some point because conditions are out of your control. External conditions are not something we can manipulate as easily as we might think we can. If you can’t adapt it will hurt more. The only thing we can control is our response.
Does that mean you have to maintain a positive attitude as best you can?
As best you can. I struggle with periodic depression and anxiety so that’s a challenge. I don’t have my happy cap on all the time. I struggle with that so find the things you can in your life that either help treat that without a lot of negative effects, find the things in your life that help pull you out of dark places, and as much as sometimes you may not feel like it reach out to people. Because other people empathizing, sympathizing, helping, are actually invaluable. They can make a difference.
It is also important to allow yourself to grieve, to allow yourself to cry?
Absolutely. I cry all the time, Paul. All the time. You know I grew up…I identify male, I am cisgender, I grew up in a typical suburban household from parents of the last generation that boys shouldn’t cry. It’s weakness, It’s unbecoming of a man. All that….I would use a stronger word normally…but baloney. That tells us that we are not allowed to express our emotions. It’s one of the most harmful things men across the world, and people in general have suffered from, being told your emotions aren’t valid.
Is it good also to laugh at the problem?
Well, have you ever had a laugh cry? I feel like I have this period of my life laugh cried more than I ever had before, which is sometimes I feel myself in that dark place and I’m feeling it and I’m there and the absurdity of the situation strikes me simultaneously and I’m laughing as I’m crying. Because sometimes I don’t even know why that emotion wells up so much. It’s not like I am just dwelling on my problems, something triggers it. But yes, we need to laugh. We need to have levity. We can’t dwell in darkness forever. Yeah, it’s important to laugh.
How important is the help of others when you are hurting?
I wouldn’t have recovered if….my family took care of me. I mean aside from the medical staff doing the work that they do, and bless them all, my parents came, and thank God they are still able to do this kind of thing because they are in their 70s and 80s. They came and took care of me for two months in recovery because I couldn’t do much for myself. And my sisters came and took care of me, so my family has been huge but aside from that I would not have been able to move back to Penland if other people here weren’t able to help me. No one in this world would be at any point of success or contentment or genuine betterment if it weren’t for other people.
What is your absolute favorite thing about clay?
It feels like because the way that we use clay in the sense of it being a moldable , soft material and becomes a hard, durable material, I am deeply invested and attracted to this idea that it is a direct way to express yourself. That it records the marks not only of your hand but it records the marks of your idea. And don’t get me wrong, I think art functions in this way also. Not all art. But particularly things that come from the hand. So that leads into me also saying that the thing I love about that and that is so deeply compelling in addition is that I rejoice in my skills. I love that I am in a profession, in a medium that I see my skills increase over time. And I know that it’s because of the work that I am doing. And I rejoice in that. I find that deeply, deeply satisfying.
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Instagram: @seanoconnell.pottery